Train Virus

[eastcoast]

Caught it in 1985 when my uncle gave me an F7 and some HO scale stuff.
Been sick ever since and now have an entire area "quarantined" in my house
just for the virus to spread. The EastCoast is deadly ill with trains and have
widowed the wife too often when the sickness gets really bad some nights.
[2c][:)]

[bnnrailroad]

Picked it up right after I was born. My father built me an HO pike. Both sets of grandparents had N along with my my mom's grandparents. My father brought out his 4x8 when I was 7. When I was 9, we connected his and mine together. Now the whole HO pike is 50+ years old and is 2 4x8's and a 2x5. It's still a playtoy and a joy torun the trains with my 7 year old daughter who now has the bug (much to the displeasure of the wife!). It's a hobby and a binding between generations. Wether it's a 4x8 or 40x80. Wether it is Z, N HO, S, O or G scale. Wether you model pre1900 to modern day. We need the younger generation to step away from the PC's and the TV's and build something. You don't need to be pefect to do this. Just take a vision and run with it. That's what this hobby is all about. It is also timeless!

Keep'em rollin' partner!

[ukguy]

All I wanted for Christmas when I was 6 was... either a train set or an "Action Man" (UK version of GI Joe) .... I got the train set, it was just an old diesel loco, one passenger car , and a circle of track, all second hand from the discount shelf at the LHS ( i have now learned ) but since then I have been bitten.

Last year my sister came to the US for a visit and I asked her to bring my old locos with her from her attic, after 25 years of not being run including 20 in an attic I put that first loco on the track and it 'moved'., after a clean up and a drop of oil (something I never did for the ten years I ran it) it was running better than it had ever done. I still run it when I want to feel that first buzz and remember when I was a kid again.

Have fun & be safe,
Karl.

[tstage]

My brother's 4 x 8' American Flyer layout that we inherited from our older cousins. At 3, I'd grab a chair and climb up on top of the layout to pu***he cars (not locomotives) around the layout. It seemed so massive back then.

Came down with a relapse just a couple of years ago when I started building my first HO layout. Looks like there is no recovery and I'm going to be quarantined for life...

Tom

[claycts]

Got a Lionel set in 1951 that did it. On a off since then. Back on now big time.

[Paul3]

When I came home from the hospital, there was a wooden toy train made by my grandfather (an ex-railroad lineman) waiting for me. Also, my father has been a model railroader since the 1950's (Lionel), and when I was growing up, we always had an HO layout. Heck, even my mom had Marx trains when she was a kid. I guess you could say it was ingrained on me at a very early age. [:)]

Paul A. Cutler III
*****************
Weather Or No Go New Haven
*****************

[Virginian]

My Great Grandfather helped build the Virginian - he is mentioned in H. Reid's book. My Grandfather worked for the railroad too. My father loved trains but his Father told him to steer clear of the railroads because he didn't think they would prosper long term. (I have contacted Guiness to see where this ranks in the "Bad Advice" category) I went train watching with my father and played on his HO layout from my earliest memories. I guess I was born with it in my blood. First time I ever heard a J's whistle - it activated it.

[PennsyHoosier]

1) My dad bought me a Lionel set for Christmas when I was one. 2) As a kid I lived on the C&O Columbus, Ohio, Subdivision, which is near the PRR Columbus-Chicago main line, and the NYC (ex-Big 4) Galion-Cincinnati main line. 3) I spent A LOT of time at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry watching the old layout. Between those three things I didn't have a chance. [^][^][^][^]

[Hawkeye251]

The Great Northern HO scale layout at the Wenatchee Valley Museum in Wenatchee, WA. I'd had a Bachman train set for years, but before I saw that layout I thought of it as nothing more than a toy.

A few weeks after that I had a subscription to model railroader and had started on a 4x8.

[CSXFan]

Classic case of receiving a Lionel set when I was 6. Ever since then I've had a one track mind (get it?[(-D][sigh]) I don't think my parents were expecting it to go so far.

[twcenterprises]

It's a virus with no known cure.....

My dad had Lionel when I was born, and had HO scale as I grew up in the 70's. We lived in the Chicago suburbs near The Rock line. What other outcome could there have been?

Brad

[Anonymous]

Well I was with my grandfolks and we were in my grandfather's truck and were comin up on a rr crossing when I heard the train horn and was hooked from the moment that I looked down the tracks. I was about 3 years old then.

[dinwitty]

yeh, that is sure a bad virus there 8-D

[youngengineer]

5 years old went to toys r us and thats all i wanted, but than again what else is there

[ARTHILL]

My dad bought me an English Yard Bird in 1950 and I needed a layout model of an iron mine to run it on.

[cacole]

Growing up right next to two railroads, the Illinois Central and Missouri Pacific, in the glory days of steam.

[Budliner]

I caught it when I was at the Boston-Museum of Science, Museum had a layout and thats all it took in 1979 I loved it

what was it for you